In this week’s Goop-letter, Gwyneth Paltrow has finally responded to the overwhelming criticism about an interview she did back in March. Which just goes to show you: Gwyneth does care about the peasants, but only when we’re coming at her with torches and pitchforks. Just for a recap, Gwyneth was speaking to E! News back in March about her schedule and how she only works on one film a year because she’s a full-time mom. But Goop took it one step too far, comparing herself to peasant working moms and she outright said the life of an actress is more difficult:

“It’s much harder for me. I feel like I set it up in a way that makes it difficult because…for me, like if I miss a school run, they are like, ‘Where were you?’ I don’t like to be the lead [in a film] so I don’t [have] to work every day, you know, I have little things that I like and obviously I want it to be good and challenging and interesting and be with good people and that kind of thing.” She added, “I think it’s different when you have an office job, because it’s routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening. When you’re shooting a movie, they’re like, ‘We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,’ and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult. I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it’s not like being on set.”

Yes. She said that. Gwyneth did not offer any clarifying statements immediately following that interview, nor did her publicist or agent slam E! News for misquoting her or anything. I believe she said that on the record, and that E! quoted her verbatim. It was a big deal too – the cable news stations were covering it. There was a segment on Morning Joe. It was big. Well, since Mother’s Day is coming up (this Sunday), Goop devoted her Goop-letter to correcting the record:

A few weeks ago during an interview, I was asked why I have only worked on one film a year since having children. My answer was this: Film work takes one away from home and requires 12-14 hours a day, making it difficult to be the one to make the kids their lunch, drive them to school, and put them to bed. So I have found it easier on my family life to make a film the exception, and my 9-5 job the rule. This somehow was taken to mean I had said a 9-5 job is easier, and a lot of heat was thrown my way, especially by other working mothers who somehow used my out-of-context quote as an opportunity to express feelings (perhaps projected) on the subject. As the mommy wars rage on, I am constantly perplexed and amazed by how little slack we cut each other as women. We see disapproval in the eyes of other mothers when we say how long we breastfed (Too long? Not long enough?), or whether we have decided to go back to work versus stay home. Is it not hard enough to attempt to raise children thoughtfully, while contributing something, or bringing home some (or more) of the bacon? Why do we feel so entitled to opine, often so negatively, on the choices of other women? Perhaps because there is so much pressure to do it all, and do it all well all at the same time (impossible).

To every single mother out there, have a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Love,
gp

[From Goop]

She then shills a “somewhat radical piece by Brigid Schulte,” which you can read at Goop because I’m not going to cut-and-paste it. So, let’s parse. First, I’ll start with the nice stuff: Gwyneth is right about judgy motherhood and competitive motherhood. I’m an outsider looking in on the Motherhood Industrial Complex, and it scares me to see the level of vitriol, judgment and condescension leveled at mothers by mothers. It’s mommy-on-mommy hate-crime.

Now, for the mean stuff. Gwyneth seems to tiptoe around the idea of outright saying she was misquoted. I think this is on purpose, because she knows she was not misquoted. She says it was taken “out of context” – I provided the context above, in the original interview, so you can see her building to her larger point, which is that working on one film a year as an actress is harder than moms who work 9-to-5 jobs. So, no, I don’t think we were “projecting” on Goop. I think we were justifiably and righteously riled by yet another out-of-touch statement by a woman with a long history of making out-of-touch declarations. Oh, and saying that your critics are “projecting” – that’s pretty insulting too. “Such adorable little small-minded peasants,” Gwyneth said to herself. “They’re just mad because they’re so poor. And fat.”

Photos courtesy of Getty, Fame/Flynet.